INTERNET RAMBLES

Why 'traditional masculinity' is toxic to men, boys

The American Psychological Association has spoken!

Patty Ann Malley is a wife, mother and wanderer. The youngest of eight in a family that was firmly planted in one spot, she’s spent the last 29 years changing addresses (but not husbands), following jobs. Her careers have included retail, advertising, public relations, restaurant, catechist and ad-hoc needs-must fill-in-the-blank. She’s gone from being a wild child to a child of God. Her eternal question (“Are we there yet?”) has yet to be answered.

Okay. The American Psychological Association has spoken. Certain behaviors which I will not name have been eliminated as being harmful to men, while traditional masculinity – conveniently not defined – has been identified as toxic for men and boys.

The purpose of the APA guidelines is to make it easier for clinicians to work with sufferers. That’s people afflicted with disorders who seek council and/or possibly in a case of toxic masculinity – someone remanded to treatment. (I don’t think such a thing has happened yet, but its coming. Anger Management counseling is often mandated for those with perceived anger issues. And it’s only a matter of time before schools, employers, and assorted judges decree that those falling within their purview receive masculinity assessment – with a requisite detox from traditional masculinity. Retraining camps?)

But that’s just me.

Check out the following clip to learn more about the harmful aspects of stoicism and being competitive. The video runs a little long, but it is an absolute MUST see:

APA professionals “draw on more than 40 years of research showing that traditional masculinity is psychologically harmful and that socializing boys to suppress their emotions causes damage that echoes both inwardly and outwardly,” the Christian Post reports.

And yet men who have been living since the beginning of time will discover, if they read outside pop culture magazines and modern theorists, that traditional masculinity is traditional for a reason. Because men are not the same as women. And women aren’t men.

One doesn’t require a degree to ascertain this truth.

Disturbing? We’re way past that

If the Cinnamon Challenge had you shaking your head at the stupid things people will do on a lark, get ready. Choking down a spoonful of cinnamon in 60 seconds, despite potential death, seems tame compared to this latest trend.

Her hygiene cocktails.

Yep. Feminine hygiene products have joined the ranks of available substances to get kids high. “Teenagers in Indonesia are collecting menstrual pads and tampons – often of the used variety – and boiling them, allowing the mixture to cool and then imbibing the resulting liquid,” according to the New York Post.

Chlorine is the active ingredient, the same that’s used to sanitize products for use. The kids find the resulting high more to their taste. Hallucinations and the sense of flying are what keep thrill seekers coming back.

“I don’t know who started it,” Jimy Ginting, an advocate for safe drinking in Indonesia, tells the Jakarta Post. “There is no law against it so far. There is no law against these kids using a mixture of mosquito repellent and [cold syrup] to get drunk.”

Disposable baby diapers are also used to concoct this crude brew. Used? I’m not going there, but kids apparently will. One 14-year-old boy admitted to drinking despite the bitter flavor, “morning, afternoon, and evening,” with friends.

But it’s all legal. No worries. There’s no law against stupid.

Check out the following video for other challenges that can kill:

So watch out. And not only for the kids – many young-at-heart adults are often just as stupid.

Slave Bible

Sins of omission – and how!

Faith comes through hearing, right? So does knowledge. The idea is that you’ll only learn what you’re exposed to – what you take in with your senses. And if lessons come from someone in a position of authority – or power over – what chance do victims have of breaking past the lies? The omissions?

That’s right. We have our Douay Rheims, the King James, the Christian Standard Bible – you name it, the list goes on. Versions of the Bible are often based on teachers’ attempts to convey the meaning of scripture in current modes so the message is preserved instead of confused by a cultural context.

Check out Bible Hub to get a feel for the difference a version can make. But not all attempts at translation are nobly motivated. Some follow a distinct agenda – and not a godly one.

The “Slave Bible,” a shameless hack job of history, contains only 14 books – parts of those books. Slaves targeted for conversion to Christianity were intended to become happy, after all; contented slaves. Who cares if scripture promises dire consequences for biblical editors, those itching to add or omit? Missionaries and slavers alike covered their bases by calling their offering of the Holy Bible “selected” for the usage of Negro slaves.

Gone was Jeremiah 22:13: “Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages and giveth him not for his work.” Exodus 21:16 – “And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death” – was also excised. In their place, the missionaries emphasized passages that encouraged subservience, like Ephesians 6:5: “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.”

That’s the ticket. Using God as a weapon upon an innocent people who conveniently weren’t allowed to learn to read. Very Christian. Not!

Check out the video below:

The Museum of the Bible, the newest attraction in Washington D.C., has this precious artifact – precious because recalling history is the best way to keep from repeating it – for a limited time. The “Slave Bible is on loan from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, which collaborated on the exhibition, as did the Center for the Study of African American Religious Life at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.”

Visit if you can, and get a load of what’s been done in the name of God. Forewarned is forearmed.